TechCrunch UK: The news wrap

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Courtesy of TechCrunch UK, starting from this week I’ll be giving you a run-down of what’s been happening in the UK, Ireland and – where possible – a little of what’s going on in the rest of the European startup scene. Hopefully you’ll find this useful.

Last.fm, the UK startup CBS bought, said it was getting a lot of traffic from its widgets. On March 14 Ireland finally gets the iPhone about three months after the UK, courtesy of UK-based carrier O2, which has the exclusive contract. Meanwhile Ireland-based voice apps startup VoiceSage closed a €3m round. The UK’s Squa.re launched a so-so video portal, but at least it had great video of Keira Knightley. The etsy-like ShopWindozlaunched a strike into the UK from its Berlin base. TwitPlus arrived as another file-sharing service for Twitter users. Hot startup Dopplr continued to add new features. Fav.or.it, the RSS reader with integrated commenting (a story TCUK broke), launched its beta to an invite-only crowd. Mobile outfit 3Billacquired ProfileHeaven. Behavioural targeting company Phormlaunched its service with a bunch of UK ISPs and publishers (this is quite a new field for the UK). The number of German start-upstripled in 2007. UK startups tried to figure out if we had the equivalent of Bucks of Woodside, and fretted about the price of office space, their exit strategy and VCs leaving early stage. Ireland-based reviews aggregator LouderVoiceprepped a new version. Badoo, the international social network, hit 13 million users. Kublax, which syncs bank accounts, utilities, and loyalty schemes, won funding, as did Bragster. Buzzspotr, which mashes Twitter users with Google maps, launched a beta. UK broadcastersleant on startups steaming video of their shows. We reviewed the Pixenate image editor, MyMapTracks, FreewireTV, Tipped and FreeAgentCentral.